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  • Porto in pictures, with a short film
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McLaren Vale

Australia Highlights Latest 

Highlights: Wirra Wirra Church Block 2022 McLaren Vale, Australia

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 jamiegoode 988 Views McLaren Vale

Church Block is one of those important wines that we need more of. It’s affordable, and accessible, but it’s a

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Australia Features Latest Regions 

Hickinbotham: some impressive wines from a special site in South Australia’s McLaren Vale

August 25, 2025 jamiegoode 2632 Views McLaren Vale

Website: https://www.hickinbothamwines.com.au/ The Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard is one of the most celebrated sites in Australia’s McLaren Vale. Although its viticultural

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Australia Food and wine 

Restaurants: Pastel Wine Bar, Adelaide, Australia – superb food meets a good wine list in a nice setting

July 27, 2025February 12, 2026 jamiegoode 2182 Views Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Restaurants

Website: https://pastel.bar/ On my first night in Australia, after a drink at East End Cellars, I headed over to Pastel

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Australia Highlights 

Highlights: MMAD Grenache 2022 Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale

November 14, 2024April 25, 2025 jamiegoode 1690 Views Grenache, McLaren Vale

Tried this wine with a few wine folk after dinner last night and was really impressed. From the Shaw &

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Australia Features Regions 

Visiting Yangarra, a star producer in Australia’s McLaren Vale

September 10, 2024March 29, 2025 jamiegoode 3467 Views Grenache, McLaren Vale

Website: https://www.yangarra.com/ The story of Yangarra nicely tracks with the revival of Grenache as a key variety in Australia, where

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Australia Features 

Wirra Wirra: a McLaren Vale winery on the fine wine transformation path

March 11, 2024May 21, 2024 jamiegoode 7913 Views McLaren Vale

Website: https://wirrawirra.com/ Wirra Wirra is a long-established winery in Australia’s McLaren Vale. For many years it has had a reputation

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Australia Features Profiles 

Top McLaren Vale Grenache from Thistledown

September 25, 2021September 26, 2021 jamiegoode 5352 Views Grenache, McLaren Vale

Website: https://www.thistledownwines.com/ McLaren Vale Grenache is a success story at the moment. Many people have discovered that if you make

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Australia Highlights Latest 

Highlights: Ochota Barrels 186 2018 McLaren Vale

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 jamiegoode 6967 Views Grenache, McLaren Vale

I’m a huge fan of Ochota Barrels, who are based in Adelaide Hills but source grapes from a number of

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Features

Another airline lounge raid, 12 wines tried
Features Latest 

Another airline lounge raid, 12 wines tried

March 4, 2026March 4, 2026 jamiegoode

Flying out to Hong Kong today so I did a lounge raid (T5 BA first class lounge – because of

Apollo’s Praise: an exciting new producer in New York’s Finger Lakes wine region
Features Latest New York State Profiles 

Apollo’s Praise: an exciting new producer in New York’s Finger Lakes wine region

March 3, 2026 jamiegoode
Porto in pictures, with a short film
Features Latest Portugal Videos 

Porto in pictures, with a short film

March 2, 2026March 2, 2026 jamiegoode
Augalevada, a star from Spain’s Ribeiro
Features Latest Spain 

Augalevada, a star from Spain’s Ribeiro

March 1, 2026March 1, 2026 jamiegoode

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About Us

Wine anorak is one of the leading wine websites. This is the latest version of the site that began life in 1999, and was founded by Jamie Goode, who at the time was working as a science editor.

Since then it has grown, and Jamie is now a full-time wine writer, lecturer, wine judge and book author.

This is an explanation of what an anorak is.

Disclosure: unless otherwise clearly marked, the articles on this site are free of conflicts of interest. Any sponsored content will be clearly marked, and potential conflicts of interest will also be disclosed. As is normal in the wine industry, many of the wines tasted here are free samples and some travel is sponsored by others (for example, regional bodies or groups of producers), but in these cases no guarantees of coverage are given.

As an Amazon Associate this website earns from qualifying purchases (for example, the links for purchasing books). Wineanorak also earns from Google AdSense display advertising.

You can contact Jamie at drjamiegoode@gmail.com Also, through my accounts at Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon

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